45. Chapter 45
Cameron
I methodically worked, finishing taking the last of the Halloween decorations off of the Holiday Tree. Sophia had wanted me to swap the orange lights on the tree for the clear ones in the attic, but I couldn’t find them in the mess of boxes and cobwebs. Besides , the tree wasn’t my focus tonight.
By the end of our festivities, I’d make sure that Mason knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that Sebastian would be a far better husband for her than Lucian ever could be .
Normally, with something like this, I’d prefer to have Sophia involved, but I didn’t want this to get back to Lucian. Don’t get me wrong, I loved Lucian, but I wasn’t sure I liked him with Mason. Not anymore. His behavior was just too erratic to be with someone as soft as Mason.
The house was quiet other than the soft Christmas music playing in the background. Lucian had forbidden premature Christmas decorations, but Sophia said all bets were off with the songs.
She and I were the only adults dressed in our slightly horrific turkey pajamas. Everyone else still had to get ready.
Sophia glided out of the kitchen with a golden platter in her hands.
Normally, I baked the goodies for our little holiday traditions, but this time, she wanted to try out a local bakery.
Still, that didn’t stop her from trying to pass them off as hers, even if we all knew she’d somehow burn water if given the opportunity.
She sat the tray on the coffee table, and I noted the Pilgrim hat-shaped cookies and the Pumpkin cake pops.
“You must’ve been slaving away all day ,” I teased, placing my hands on her hips.
Her laugh came easy as I buried my face in her blonde hair. I was so distracted by kissing her neck that I didn’t notice Sebastian coming down the steps until he was right beside us.
He awkwardly cleared his throat, shifting his weight from one foot to the other as he pushed up his glasses.
We’d been slowly incorporating him into our madness, but this was the first time he’d gotten roped into matching pajamas. This had to be the first time I’d seen him in something not tailored to fit him.
The brown shirt clenched his biceps and stretched across his chest, distorting the turkey on the front while the autumn-colored plaid pants hung from his hips.
I pulled back from Sophia and gave him one more once over, this time taking my time so he knew I was checking him out.
“You look good.” I smiled.
His shoulders tensed, and he looked away before mumbling, “Thank you.”
“No! He’s right!” Sophia chirped before walking closer. Her hand landed on the muscle of Sebastian’s arm before squeezing him. “You look hot . Like a Superhero in jammies.”
Something in her comment made him perk up a little. His posture straightened as a shy smile crossed his lips.
“Thank you, Sophia. You look… hot as well.” Sebastian’s tone was jarringly formal.
Sophia giggled as she played with her hair. She was laying it on thick , but I was glad I wasn’t the only one slightly bewitched by Sebastian.
“Make yourself comfortable. The cookies are lactose-free, so you should be safe to eat them,” she added with a wink before heading back to the kitchen .
My brows inched toward my hairline. I’d never bothered to consider if Sebastian had allergies. But I wasn’t really surprised. Everything else about him was so damn nerdy it just made sense .
His eyes widened slightly. “Thank you, Sophia. That’s rather considerate.”
“You’re welcome!” she called from the next room.
“You seem tense,” I commented, stepping a little closer. “Is everything alright?”
Sebastian reached for my hand the second I was in range, and I noticed a subtle shake in his hands.
“I, well, I’ve celebrated every holiday alone since I started working at sixteen. So this is all a little bizarre to me.” His admission was soft as his thumb ran over my knuckles.
But that didn’t seem right. “Didn’t ya have a boyfriend?”
He nodded. “Alex never introduced me to his family, and now that I think of it, I’m fairly certain he was embarrassed of me.”
“What about your family?” I knew the Castillos were weird, but Lucian said Seb was their golden boy.
“For the first few years, I’d be working, and then my mom and dad started going on vacations during the holidays, and I just didn’t want to burden anyone else.” His face softened in resignation. “Can you maybe not repeat that, though?”
The more I learned about Sebastian Castillo, the more I understood why he was the way he was. He wasn’t a creep for the sake of being weird. Instead, he was sad and lonely . Between his job and his lack of good relationships, how could anyone expect him to act normal ?
I probably owed him an apology for ever thinking about him that way, but I knew if I said sorry, he’d make fun of me.
“Also, you look handsome , Cameron Cole,” he sheepishly admitted.
I tried to plan a proper way to tell him I’d prefer if he didn’t use my full name, but he took me by surprise. Slowly, Sebastian lifted my hand to his lips and brushed a kiss to my knuckles.
I tensed out of reflex alone .
“Was that bad? Did I overstep?” His piercing blue eyes searched mine.
This softer side of Sebastian was strange to me. Hell, I felt like most of our conversations ended up with him calling me fat or stupid.
“It’s nice that you’re opening up to me,” I assured him.
“I… this morning at Mason’s appointment, I considered kissing you.” His gaze darted away from me as a flush crept up his neck. “On the lips, not like what I just did. You just looked really happy, and it felt like the right thing to do. But I didn’t want to make the situation awkward.”
I studied him for a moment, surprised by his vulnerability. Also, considering his past, I didn’t think he’d want to kiss me. Not this soon, anyway.
My heartbeat slowed as I swallowed hard. “You could’ve.”
His eyes snapped to mine as surprise flickered across his face. “Really–But we were in public? Are you messing with me?”
Honestly, I thought he was messing with me . “Seb, I ain’t afraid of the world knowing I care about you.”
Sebastian blinked, his lips parting slightly before sealing again. Slowly, he seemed to process my words, and a tentative smile tugged at his lips. “I just–I assumed you would want to keep it a secret longer until we’re sure about this.” He gestured between us. “Is actually a thing.”
“Well, to me, this–” I mocked his gesture. “ Is actually a thing. I’m just giving you time.”
“Oh… Well, can I kiss you now?” His request was soft.
And my answer was softer still. “I’d like that.”
Sebastian hesitated before stepping closer.
He tipped his head in two separate directions as if trying to figure out which way would end in our first actual kiss being perfect .
Once he decided which way to do this, he closed in, and my heart skipped a beat as I caught a whiff of his citrusy cologne.
But, just as the heat from his lips radiated into mine, we were interrupted.
“Uncle Bash!” Jasper’s voice grew closer before Sebastian was jolted forward, causing him to fall into me rather than finish our kiss. “Look! We match!”
Sebastian caught himself on my shoulders and steadied us both before looking back to Jasper .
Jas beamed as he held up his little leg for emphasis, showing off the turkey-clad PJ pants.
“Look at that, I guess we do.” Sebastian chuckled.
“That’s because we’re best friends,” Jasper added.
Sebastian’s brows inched up. “... I’m your uncle.”
It was hard not to laugh at Sebastian’s bewilderment. I was sure he’d be a pro at handling toddlers’ offhanded comments by the time Rosie was three. But, for now?
“You can be both, silly,” Jasper said, tugging on Sebastian’s hand. “Come on, I want to sit.”
Jasper pointed to the couch, and Sebastian looked back at me, almost like he was asking permission. I nodded, and off they went, Jasper leading the way. Sophia soon joined us with a tray of drinks, placing them on the table before looking around.
“Where’s the other three?” she asked.
“Daddy and Masie had to get dressed. Juni said she didn’t trust them,” Jasper said before pointing to the drinks. “Can I have my juice, please?”
“Of course.” Sophia grabbed one of the plastic cups and passed it to Jasper, kissing him on the cheek as she sat down beside Sebastian and grabbed one of the wine glasses.
I was taken aback a little when I noticed there were four in total.
I’d expected that she and I would drink and that she’d probably at least offer one to Sebastian. But who was the fourth for?
The sound of footsteps started down the hallway, and I looked over to see Mason and Lucian both dressed in their pajamas, and Juniper followed close behind. Her green eyes narrowed with suspicion as she followed at their heels.
“Finally,” Sophia muttered, taking a sip of her wine. “I thought you would miss all the fun.”
“That’s my fault,” Mason said as Lucian helped her get settled into the loveseat. “Rosie–” A wince cut her sentence short. “Rosie wasn’t making getting dressed easy . ”
That small action had every set of adult eyes glued on Mason. I tried to remember everything Dr. Reed told us to watch for this morning. But she also said that Mason probably wouldn’t have Rosie soon.
I grabbed an extra pillow from the armchair and made my way to her, tucking it behind her back. “Do ya need to go to the doctor?”
Mason heaved out a heavy breath as she shook her head. “She’s just letting me know she’s in there.”
I wanted to believe her, but there was an underlying tension in her expression. “You sure?”
She swallowed and nodded. “I think I’m just dehydrated, and she’s mad.”
There was no way in hell Mason was dehydrated. I’d seen Lucian grab her at least six bottles of water since we got home. But… Dr. Reed also said mothers knew their bodies best. So, I’ll let this be. If Mason needed to go to the doctor, she’d tell us.
“And I have the perfect thing for that!” Sophia chirped before giving Mason one of the juice cups. “Drink up! We have a whole tree to decorate, and the pinecone turkeys won’t hang themselves.”
Mason quietly thanked Sophia before taking a long drink from her cup.
Sophia then passed out the remaining drinks. Juniper got juice, of course, and she gave Sebastian and me whatever seasonal sangria she’d made for the occasion, but I paused when she gave Lucian a glass too .
He was a recovering addict, and I was pretty sure that meant he wasn’t supposed to drink.
I was even more shocked when Lucian brought the glass to his lips and took a sip. What the hell was going on?
I pushed that thought to the back of my mind as Sophia started to pass the turkey-shaped ornaments and autumn leaves out so we could all decorate. When everyone was distracted, I pulled her to the side.
“Hey… Is he allowed to do that?” I pointed to the glass of wine in Lucian’s hand.
Sophia hesitated as she looked back. “Promise you won’t be mad? ”
I tipped my head closer to her. “Not as long as you can explain why he has a glass of wine.”
Sophia’s gaze darted over to the tree and back to me.
“He’s going to be a rockstar, Cam. That means he’s going to be around alcohol.” She kept her voice low as she focused on me. “And, I figured if we could reintroduce him to it here, slowly, and while it’s controlled, it might be less of a problem for him down the road.”
I took a moment to process her words, and while it made sense, I still didn’t like it.
“So, what was your plan for if he relapsed? We’re going to be having a baby pretty much any day now. We can’t deal with that right now!”
“Cam, it’s fine,” she assured me. “It’s one glass of sangria. He’s been fine every other time we’ve done it. Plus, he’s like six-three. One glass of wine isn’t enough to get him drunk. Especially because we’ll be having dinner soon, right?”
Somehow, the knowledge that this wasn’t the first time made it worse. But she and I could argue about that later. Tonight was about me giving Mason and Sebastian time to be alone.
“Yeah, I mean, I ordered it like an hour ago. It should be here,” I explained and grabbed my phone, pretending to look through emails. After a moment, I muttered, “ Shit .”
“What’s wrong?” Sophia asked, trying to look at my phone.
I quickly slipped it back into my pocket so she wouldn’t see the screen.
“I meant to order delivery, but I accidentally did pick up,” I breathed. “Shit, and I’ve been drinking too.”
I hadn’t been, but I knew Sophia had. She’d been taste-testing the sangria for the last hour, so she was too buzzed to drive.
“Shoot. What about Seb? Do you think we could ask him to get it?”
I glanced back at Sebastian who was currently untangling an ornament from Jasper’s mop of dark curls.
“I mean, it’s a good idea as long as he hasn’t been drinking,” I said, acting like that wasn’t my plan all along .
“He should be fine,” she assured me before looking back to the chaos of the tree. “Hey Seb! Can you come here for a moment?”
He looked up just as he finished freeing Jasper. He then handed Jasper the ornament before walking over.
“What’s up?” he asked.
“We have a bit of a problem,” I explained, scratching my beard. “I meant to order delivery from the Chinese place up the street, but I messed up, and now someone needs to go get it.”
“What, don’t you know how to drive?” he taunted, but his words lacked their usual venom.
“No, I do, I’ve just been drinking.” I laughed.
“That’s fine. I can do it. Just send me the address.”
I breathed a sigh of relief as I did what he said. “Hey, maybe you should take Mason, too. She looks like she could use some air.”
Sebastian looked back at the tree, his gaze settling on Mason as she sat on the floor, rubbing her back and passing out ornaments.
“I can do that,” he repeated.
He walked away as quickly as he returned, and I quietly reveled in the fact that my plan to get them alone worked. I just hoped he’d make the most of the opportunity.